“As a child, do you remember the sensation of cramming your mouth full of crisps and chocolate at the same time? I do,” recollects comedian, cook and content creator George Egg, known as the Snack Hacker.
“This recipe recreates that experience. It also looks great, both in real life as well as on the page.”
George Egg’s Twiglet brownies
Makes: 6 modest-sized squares
Ingredients:
54g butter
100g bar of cheap supermarket own-brand dark chocolate (you won’t need it all)
1 egg
72g soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
34g Twiglets (to make Twiglet flour) plus another 20-30 Twiglets
1 tbsp cocoa nibs
Handful of pecans, slightly crushed in your fist (oh now he’s all vague with quantities!)
Pinch of flaky salt (Maldon or Cornish sea salt)
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 195C/175C fan/gas 5/6. Melt the butter and 54g of chocolate together either in a microwave or in a bowl suspended over a pan of gently simmering water.
2. When the butter is melted enough to start the chocolate melting, take it out of the microwave or off the heat of the stove and let the combined heats do the rest so as not to risk splitting the chocolate.
3. While the butter and chocolate cool, in another bowl beat or whisk the egg, sugar and vanilla together. Then combine with the chocolate and butter mixture. Everything will cool and thicken a bit.
4. Grind the 34g of Twiglets into a flour with the blender, smoothiemaker or coffee grinder. Add the Twiglet flour, cocoa nibs, pecans, another 20g of the chocolate chopped into small pieces (you can now eat any chocolate that’s left) and a pinch of flaky salt to the batter and fold together until combined.
5. Pour the mixture into your loaf tin and smooth the top. Arrange the rest of the Twiglets across the top like a raft and bake in the middle of the oven for exactly 19 minutes.
6. Take it out and let it cool in the tin. Then put it in the fridge to go completely cold before cutting into squares (I cut once down the length in the middle and twice across the width to make a three by two grid).
Recipe from ‘The Snack Hacker: Rule-Breaking Recipes for Cooks and Non-Cooks’ by George Egg (Blink, £22).
